The heart of a computer's long term memory is an assembly that is referred to as a magnetic disk drive. The magnetic disk drive includes a rotating magnetic disk, write and read heads that are suspended by a suspension arm adjacent to a surface of the rotating magnetic disk and an actuator that swings the suspension arm to place the read and write heads over selected circular tracks on the rotating disk. The read and write heads are directly located on a slider that has an air bearing surface (ABS). The suspension arm biases the slider toward the surface of the disk, and when the disk rotates, air adjacent to the disk moves along with the surface of the disk. The slider flies over the surface of the disk on a cushion of this moving air. When the slider rides on the air bearing, the write and read heads are employed for writing magnetic transitions to and reading magnetic transitions from the rotating disk. The read and write heads are connected to processing circuitry that operates according to a computer program to implement the writing and reading functions.
The write head can include a magnetic write pole and a magnetic return pole, the write pole having a much smaller cross section at the ABS than the return pole. The magnetic write pole and return pole are magnetically connected with one another at a region removed from the ABS. An electrically conductive write coil is wrapped around the write pole and induces a magnetic flux that magnetizes the write pole when a current is passed through the coil. This results in a magnetic write field being generated through the adjacent magnetic medium, the write field being substantially perpendicular to the surface of the medium (although it can be canted somewhat, such as by a trailing shield located near the write pole). The magnetic write field locally magnetizes the medium and then travels through the medium and returns to the write head at the location of the return pole where it is sufficiently spread out and weak that it does not erase previously recorded bits of data. The polarity of the write field is dictated by the polarity of the write current through the write coil. The polarity is switched based on a write clock whose frequency and phase are controlled to optimize the data write process.
A magnetoresistive sensor such as a GMR or TMR sensor can be employed for sensing magnetic fields from the rotating magnetic disk. The sensor includes a nonmagnetic conductive layer, or barrier layer, sandwiched between first and second ferromagnetic layers, referred to as a pinned layer and a free layer. In a read mode, the resistance of the spin valve sensor changes proportionally to the magnitudes of the magnetic fields from the rotating disk. When a sense current is conducted through the spin valve sensor, resistance changes cause potential changes that are detected and processed as playback signals.
In an effort to increase data density, magnetic recording systems can be constructed to incorporate bit patterned media. Such media can be formed with isolated magnetic data islands, which can be surrounded by non-magnetic material. Bit patterned media can record smaller bits of data at higher data density than would be possible with a standard media, while being magnetically stable at higher data densities. However, bit patterned media present a challenge to the write process as precise registration and timing are required between the locations of the patterned islands and application of the write fields. Missynchronization and misregistration can cause islands to be magnetized incorrectly, potentially leading to the loss of customer data. What is needed is a precise method for maintaining synchronization during the write process and a method for inhibiting the write process if synchronization or registration is lost.